The Effects Of Meditation Music

The day-to-day stressors of contemporary life can jack up your blood pressure and jangle your nerves. Meditation is a popular method for gaining inner peace in times of stress, without the use of pharmaceutical aids. Whether your journey toward serenity is a structured practice of transcendental meditation, or a more casual "time out" involving a bit deep breathing and mindfulness, you may find that certain types of music are a helpful adjunct to your meditation practice.

Setting the Tone

Michael Olpin, professor of health promotion at Weber State University, notes that music is a powerful tool for setting the mood across a variety of situations. Music features strongly in such settings as shopping centers, where muzak keeps the masses calm, or parades, where marching bands rile the crowd into a patriotic fervor. In a meditation environment, music can be a helpful tool for coaxing the body and mind into a meditative state.

Relaxation

Transcendental meditation and yoga cause an increase in alpha wave activity in the brain, according to Julie Ann Boone, who holds a masters degree in music from the Florida State University. These alpha waves are related to feelings of well-being. Meditation music may have an effect on alpha wave activity, and the University of Maryland Medical Center notes that gentle classical music has been found to reduce anxiety during challenging tasks, and to decrease heart rate and blood pressure.

Classical Music and the Mozart Effect

Classical music is popular among practitioners of meditation. It also has been treasured throughout history for its soothing effects. When the Russian envoy Count Kayserling could find no other relief from his bouts of insomnia, he commissioned Johann Goldberg to play bedtime Bach concerts for him. These Bach selections are now known the world over as the Goldberg variations.

The "Mozart Effect" a popular phenomenon in the 1990s, claimed that listening to Mozart resulted in higher test scores. According to Stanford Graduate School of Business, this belief began with a 1993 study published in the journal "Nature" that found that college students had a small temporary increase in IQ while listening to Mozart. This tiny study was erroneously extrapolated and interpreted to mean that anyone who listened to Mozart would instantly become smarter. A spate of products designed to turn babies into astrophysicists soon appeared on the market, despite the fact that music's effects on infant intelligence had never actually been studied.